USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie County, New York : with illusustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 73
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Now-hail the sight !- a realm of glorious pride Touching earth's mightiest oceans either side ! Pine meeting Palm in garlands round her head, Starred States, striped climates o'er her banner spread,
Great Washington diffused ; his spirit grand Incarnate in the person of our land ! In this green valley where war wildest reigned, Where life's red current every harvest stained, Where peace contrasting, now the brightest glows,
And place of battle's thistle, smiles the rose,
Where builds the bird within the shattered shell,
Plumped with soft moss, that slew where'er it fell,
Where the blue violet yields the skull its eye, Instead of strife's close ranks, upstands the rye, Where waves the wheat whence savage plumage flashed,
And oft avenging Murphy's rifle crashed By this Stone Fort that once threw back the tide
Of conflict as its surges smote its side, This day our patriot's ashes we consign To his loved earth henceforth a sacred shrine, Round which to latest years our grateful hearts shall twine.
Now on this flowering of our Century Tree, Apotheosis of our history,
This famed Centennial, it is passing well Of patriot hearts and patriot deeds to tell,
That they in memory's grasp should firmly cling
As gold in quartz, or pearls in shells, and fling Like stars, a lustre o'er our Nation's way, Till Time's grand sun shall set, and dawns Eter- nal Day.
464
HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS,
BY DR. DANIEL KNOWER.
This large concourse of people, this fine military display, the presence of these dis- tinguished persons, and the attendance of so many ladies to grace the occasion, show that the recollection of patriotic deeds does not die out in the hearts of a free people. David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, in honor of whose memory we are assembled here to-day, was born in Tarrytown, West- chester county, in this State, October 21, 1754. He entered the Revolutionary army in 1775, at the age of nineteen ; fought under Montgomery at the battle of St. Johns and Quebec ; and continued in the regular patriot services until 1779. The capture of Major Andre occurred on the 23d of September, 1780, ninety-six years ago to-day.
David Williams was the eldest of the three captors-he being twenty-five years of age, and John Paulding and Isaac Van Wart, his compatriots, being about twenty years old. The following is Williams' account of the capture, as related to Judge Tiffany, at his home in this County, February 13, 1817 :-
" The three [militiamen] were seated beside the road in the bushes, amusing themselves at cards, when their attention was arrested by the galloping of a horse. On approaching the road they saw a gentleman riding toward them, seated on a large brown horse, which was after- ward observed to have marked on the near shoulder the initials U. C. A. The rider was a
light, trim-built man, about five feet seven inches in height, with a bold military counte- nance and dark eyes, and was dressed in a tall beaver hat, surtout, crimson coat, with panta- loons and vest of nankeen. As he neared them, the three cocked their muskets and aimed at the rider, who immediately checked his horse." * * * *
[Here Mr. Knower narrated the conversation held between the captors and Andre, as pub- lished on pages 136 and 137 of this work, and thus concluded :- ]
The circumstances of the capture as narrated in the testimony of Paulding and Williams, given at the trial of Smith eleven days after the capture, and written down by the Judge Advocate at the time, is substantially the same. Williams in his testimony there says : " He said he would give us any quantity of dry goods, or any sum of money, and bring it to any place that we might pitch upon, so that we might get it. Mr. Paulding answered, No, if you should give us 10,000 guineas you should not stir one step."
The importance of the capture of Andre can never be too highly estimated. The plan for cutting the Colonies in two on the line of the Hudson and Lake Champlain had been foiled by the capture of Burgoyne. The possession of West Point would have given a successful opportunity for prosecuting the same design. No wonder that Washington burst into tears when he learned of the treason of Arnold. He
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very well knew what had been our danger, and how narrow had been our escape. Washington wrote to Congress, September 28, 1780-three days after the capture-saying: " I do not know the party that took Major Andre, but it is said that it consisted of only a few militia, who acted in such a manner upon the occasion as does them the highest honor, and proves them of great virtue. As soon as i know their names I shall take pleasure in transmitting them to Congress.," Again, October 7, 1780, he writes Congress, transmitting the findings of the Court, which had tried Andre, and in his letter he says : " I have now the pleasure to communicate the names of those persons who captured Major Andre, and who refused to release him, not- withstanding the most earnest importunities and assurances of a liberal reward on his part. Their names are John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart." Alexander Hamilton, writing in 1780, of the affair, says: " Andre tempted their integrity with the offer of his watch, his horse, and any sum of money they should name. They rejected his offer with disdain."
Congress gave each of them $1,250, or the same value in confiscated lands in Westchester county, a pension of $200, and a silver medal. The medals were presented to the captors by General Washington, at a dinner to which he invited them while the army was encamped near Ver Planck's Point ; the one presented to David Williams being now in possession of his oldest grandson, William C. Williams, of this County .*
David Williams was married to Miss Benedict, of Westchester county, by whom he had one son named David, who has seven children liv- ing, four in this County, two in Iowa, and one in Virginia, who are worthy descendants in honor and integrity of the Revolutionary patriot. He moved to this County in 1806, and died August
2, 1831, aged seventy-seven, and was buried at Livingstonville, with military honors, where his remains reposed for forty five years, and until the 4th of March, 1876, when they were Ie- moved to the cemetery at Rensselaerville. On the 19th of July, they were removed to the Stone Fort in Schoharie, to which destination they were escorted by a large procession, headed by the American flag, and amid martial music. All places of business were closed ; the bells tolled, and the cannon at the Fort fired a salute as his coffin, wrapped in the American flag, was deposited near his present resting place.
On the Ist of May, 1876, the Governor signed the following bill introduced by Senator Lamont, it having passed both Houses :
" For erecting a suitable monument in the cemetery grounds of the revolutionary Stone Fort at Schoharie Court House, to commemorate the virtues and memory of David Williams, one of the captors of Major Andre, the sum of two thousand dollars, to be expended under the supervision of Daniel Knower, Ralph Brewster, supervisor of the town of Schoharie, and Charles Holmes, county judge of Schoharie county, who are hereby appointed a commission for that purpose, and who are hereby authorized to remove the remains of the said David Will- iams from their present burial in the cemetery at Rensselaerville, to such cemetery at Schoharie Court House, upon first obtaining the con- sent thereto, in writing, of a majority of the descendants of said Williams, and upon furnish- ing proof thereof to the comptroller ; but in case such consent in writing for said removal shall not be obtained, and proof thereof fur- nished the comptroller within two months from the passage of this act, then the above appro- priation shall be expended by a commission, consisting of the comptroller of the State, Erastus D. Palmer, and the President of the Rensselaerville Cemetery Association, for the
*It has since been placed in the State Library at Albany.
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
erection of the monument in the Rensselaer- ville cemetery."
Paulding is buried near Peekskill, and a monument was erected over his remains by the corporation of the city of New York in 1827. Near Tarrytown the remains of Isaac Van Wart are honored by a monument erected by the county of Westchester. And now in this cen- tennial year has the State of New York recog- nized by its Legislature and Governor, this most important event in our Revolutionary history ; an event which occurred within its borders, and in which three of her sons had the honor, by their disinterested patriotism and love of coun- try, to save our country in that important crisis of our Revolutionary history. General Wash- ington wrote to the President of Congress, Octo- ber 7, 1780, two weeks after the capture :- " Their conduct merits our warmest esteem ; and I beg leave to add that I think the public would do well to allow them a handsome gra- tuity. They have prevented in all probability our suffering one of the severest strokes that could have been meditated against us." Yet this one of the most disinterested acts of patri- otism and love of country recorded in history, strange to say, has been attacked and the mo- tives of the actors impugned.
A bill passed Congress some years since ap- propriating $20,000 for erecting a monument to them, but did not reach, or was defeated in the Senate. The patriotism of these men has been impugned by members of Congress. This bill was likewise opposed in the State Senate by a senator from New York City on the same grounds, In the language of the poet,
" He who ascends to mountain tops must find The loftiest hills clad in snow ; He who surpasses and excels mankind Must see and feel their hate below."
Williams lived to be seventy-seven years old and died fifty-two years after the event occurred. Isaac Van Wart lived to the age of sixty-nine
and died forty-nine years after the event, and John Paulding reached the age of sixty, dying forty years after the capture. All three during these long years bore unimpeachable charac- ters for honor and integrity, which would not have been possible if they had been marauders and freebooters as represented by those who impugned their motives.
Williams, previous to this event, had served four years in the Revolutionary army, and Paulding, only three days previous to the cap- ture, had made his escape from the Sugar House British prison in New York. These facts indicate beyond all doubt on which side their feelings were.
Andre has a monument erected in Westmin- ster Abbey, which is the highest honor that can be conferred on the remains of any person in England. His remains were removed from this country in a coffin mounted with gold. His brother was created a Knight, in honor of his services in this affair, by the King of England.
What were the services Andre rendered to England, compared with the services these three disinterested patriots rendered to this country ? Let it not always be said that Republics are un . grateful. Even the motives of the men who conimenced the Revolution by throwing the tea overboard in Boston harbor, and the motives of those who fought the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington were attacked. It has been said that their grievances from Great Britain did not justify a resort to such measures. These men knew that if they yielded one point guaranteed to them in the liberal charters that had been granted to the Colonies, as an induce- ment for them to emigrate to this country when a wilderness, that America would become a second Ireland, and all the rights guaranteed to them in their charters would be crushed out. If I have any pride of ancestry, it is in being descended from the men who took part in the
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APPENDIX.
glorious events where the cannon first thundered in the War of the Revolution.
Your commissioners propose to make an appeal to any county, city, association, literary club or individual, who may subscribe not less than $200 or more than $1,800, in addition to the $2,000 appropriated by the State, and to have the names of the subscribers inscribed on one of the faces of the monument or on a marble tablet to be erected in the Fort, as the artists who may design the monument may think most appropriate. It is proposed to appoint one or more of the most distinguished artists and sculptors in the State to design the monument and make it a work of art appropriate to the event.
We are now one hundred years old as a nation. Our material prosperity and growth is unparal- leled in history. For the sake of the future and the perpetuity of our free institutions, we should cultivate sentiments that will inspire in the youth a strong love of country. What more appropriate occasion than the present to
erect here a work of art, which will call attention for all time to the disinterested patriotism of these three men who saved our country in the Revo- lution ? It was such men among our common soldiers that enabled the country to produce a Washington. The people, the source and fountain of political power, must be kept pure and patriotic if we wish to perpetuate our republican form of government. The more we learn from the men of the Revolution, and the more strictly we adhere to the great principles inaugurated in our government by its founders, the better for the future of our country. Al- though the disinterested patriotism of these three men has conferred its benefits on a great nation of 44,000,000 of people, yet the Empire State of New York enjoys the honor of having had the event occur within its own borders. I feel that her sons and daughters will respond to an appeal for the erection of a work of art, in this beautiful valley of Schoharie, beside this Revolutionary Fort, that will do justice to this important event, and in which we all may take a just pride.
W THEN it became known that General Wash- ington was firm, not interceding in behalf of Andre and releasing him in exchange for prom- inent officers and citizens held by the British, nor suspending the usual custom of hanging a spy and adopting some other mode that was considered more honorable to his rank and sta- tion,-the British and Tory element at once be- gan a series of vituperations against Washing- ton through the Tory press and both private and public written missives. Their greatest ac- cusation against the patriot was his being a hard-hearted and obstinate tyrant whom the patriots were cautioned to trust no longer, as he would be as unmerciful to their liberties, if the
patriots' cause should succeed, as he was in an- swering the last request of a dying soldier and gentleman. Soon after the execution, the same press and other sources began to speculate upon the motives of the faithful three in delivering Andre to the Continental powers. When it was ascertained that the three were but common yeomen and thus faithfully performed a duty that transcended in politic as well as manly principle any that their scion of royalty had performed-although long pampered by oppor- tunities and superior discipline - the allied enemies of our cause at once began to stigma- tize the lives and conduct of the captors. They accused them of being low in morals, recreant
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
in duty, and above all, made the charge that Andre could have purchased his freedom if he had had enough money with him. From that day to the present, the same charges have been re-iterated, it seems periodically through the press of our country-by this and that one, here and there, and as often received its share of conversational notice and died away. The facts of the whole transaction were given before the scrutinizing inilitary court before the execution of Andre and he failed to contradict a single. assertion. The fact of his offering the three 10,000 guineas to release him was there brought out. If they did not desire to release him and still willingly accepted the promised money, they could have held him until the amount was de- livered or any other sum they might have named, as gold was secondary to the British when West Point was in the scales. The mili- tary court investigated the whole and trans- mitted it to Congress who weighed the matter well and pronounced the three-such as they were, "true patriots " and voted them a sum for their fidelity. Before that careful and able body was another epistle, from one who knew well the whole transaction. It was Washing- ton's letter speaking in the highest praise of the three.
It is pleasing to all who are sensitive to such base charges against those whose acts have made American history so full of examples of heroic principle, that all the charges have emanated from untrustworthy sources as sensational newspaper correspondents, who for lack of matter willingly rake over the embers of hatred and suspicion to find material for a shadow of a theme, and from those in whose bosoms, as then, still rankles the dislike to re- publican institutions and the bold spirits that dare maintain, by life and fortunes, the " inalien- able rights" of man, which the grand old Decla- ration of Independence vouchsafed, and the blood, treasures, and untold privations of true
patriots purchased. But a few years since, in October, 1880, a writer, claiming unjustly the name of Williams, also to be a grandson of David Williams, wrote a letter to the Detroit Free Press impugning the motives of the patriot in the capture of Andre, which caused several communications between historical scholars and revived the old charges. The cominents of the Press letter were as follows :---
L. K. Williams of Syracuse, N. Y., a grand- son of David Williams one of the captors of Major Andre, writes to the Free Press an ex- ceedingly interesting letter about Andre's cap- ture that corroborates a charge once made, that his captors were not the very purest sort of patriots. The following is Mr. Williams' let- ter :-
" I have cut from yesterday's issue of the Syr- acuse Evening Herald the following paragraph : The Detroit Free Press says : 'The three men who captured Andre were playing cards in the bushes as he rode up. Had they not come there to play cards he would have escaped and our country been lost. Let us take the right bower of hearts for our national ensign.'
" Being familiar with the fact that those three men were playing cards I will say a few words more about it. My grandmother, the wife of David Williams, died in Cayuga county, this State, about thirty years ago. I have listened to her stories many a night about the old Rev- olutionary war and among others she would tell all about Andre and his captors.
"She seemed to know Paulding and Van Wart personally. She said that the three were playing cards, and that their business in the bush was a sort of guerrilla expedition, watching whom they might devour, and according to her belief, they cared but little whether their cap- tives were friends or foes. It was plunder that they were after, and if Andre had had a little money he could have passed on.
" Williams and Van Wart would have let
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him pass, on his promise to send any amount of money. After he got the two willing, he became a little saucy with Paulding, and here is where he missed his figure. It seemed that Paulding was the leader, and he got mad and was ready to fight the whole three, and even told Andre to come out and fight hiin, and if he proved the best man he could then pass along. Andre had only a few dollars and a nice watch with him, which could not well be divided with the party, and they concluded to take him to the American camp, as he told them if he could see Arnold he would satisfy them well, but when they got to the American camp they found different men from cow-boys to deal with. They found Arnold, but he im- mediately left for the Vulture, in the river.
" These are facts which history does not give in this light. It is forty or fifty years ago that old Granny told us about this transaction and about laying in the scrubwood, in the Mohawk river, when Schenectady was burning."
" L. K. WILLIAMS."
Such base libel upon integrity and fidelity has often appeared, with no better foundation. The writer assumes to be a grandson of David Williams, whose name and character stand in history as the brightest. This assumed grand- son, unasked, stoops to belittle the family name, the bright character and fame of his grand- father, by throwing mud upon it! If the charges were true, and L. K. Williams was a grandson, he has truly inherited the low prin- ciples he wishes to be understood, David Will- iams possessed, and those principles actuated the foregoing letter. But let us see how far facts prove L. K. Williams to be what he assumes. The letter was brought to the notice of the New York State Librarian, who drew the attention of Dr. D. Knower of Schoharie, chair- man of the " Williams Monument Commission- ers." Dr. Knower immediately indited the fol-
lowing to the Free Press, but did not receive notice by publication :--
" SCHONARIE, Dec. 30, 1880
" DEAR SIR. - Our State Librarian, D. H. A. Homes, at Albany, called my attention to an artı. cle from your paper, of October 23, 1880, in re- lation to the captors of Major Andre. He was desirous I should reply to it. The article was dated at Syracuse, and signed L. K. Williams, who claimed to be a grandson of the captor ; that he had listened to the stories of his grandmother about the Revolution, and this event ; that she was personally acquainted with Paulding and VanWart, and corroborated the charge that those captors were not actuated by patriotic motives; · that she died about thirty years ago, and was buried in Cayuga county.
"I am personally acquainted with all the grand- children of David Williams, and with his only son's widow, their mother.
" David Williams was married to Miss Bene- clict, of Westchester county, N. Y. They moved to this County in 1806, and had but one child, a son, named David. This son married a Miss Hess, who is now, at the age of eighty, living in this County. They had seven children, three sons and four daughters. The sons are William C., Daniel, (who resides in this County), and Myron, of Marion county, Iowa, who are the only grandchildren of the captor. So it is not true that L. K. Williams is a grandson nor is it true that the wife of David Williams, whom he falsely claims to be his grandmother, is buried in Cayuga county. They were both buried at Livingstonville, in this County, and as a Com- missioner of the State, under authority of the Comptroller, I had their remains exhumed and removed to the grounds of the Stone Fort at this place, where they now repose under a monu- ment erected by the State of New York. There unfortunately have been among our historians,
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
controversies for nearly one hundred years, in relation to the purity of the motives of those captors. From a thorough investigation of the subject, I have no doubt of the disinterested patriotism of those three men, and the inestini- able benefit they conferred on our country, no one can question. They may be said to have saved it in the very crisis of the Revolution, and I am satisfied that those attacks on the purity of their motives have no more foundation than the untruthful statements of your correspondent signed L. K. Williams. While the State of New York may take a just pride in having had that event occur within her borders, it has conferred its benefit on this great nation of 50,000,000 of people. Our Republican form of Government cannot be perpetuated alone by politicians. It must have for its foundation the love of country, the inspiration derived from the patriotic senti- ments of the people, which the honoring and
cherishing of those Revolutionary events are well calculated to cultivate."
"DANIEL KNOWER."
The writer has been assured by aged people who were well acquainted with Mrs David Williams that she always lived within the County after the family removed here, and therefore was never a resident of Cayuga county. It will thus be seen that L. K. Williams' statement is untrue and that if his grandmother ever related such statements to him as the wife of David Williams she was an imposter and in weighing the assertion that she witnessed the burning of Schenectady (1690) and died about thirty years ago (1850) we are led to believe such was her standing, and that she was a remarkable woman to retain her memory so "vividly " at the age of one hundred and sixty years ! Still, such charges by such people often receive credence as " facts untold by history !"
NAMES OF CITIZENS
WHO ASSISTED AND CONTRIBUTED TOWARD THE PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORY OF SCHOLARIE COUNTY. WITH PERSONAL STATISTICS.
BROOME.
Ahuy Aruoid T., p o Franklinton, farmer, born In Albany connty. December 30, 1820, settled In county lu 1831 ; wife Lucy Brazee of county, born In 1821, marrled In 1812 ; children slx-Erastua ('., Willlam, Asa, Arnold, Ellaworth, and Alonzo. Parente John and Anna Almy.
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